Saturday, November 21, 2009

Great news, a lazy day--and cooking

Last night I hinted at good news to come, but I was out of steam and my blog post was already long. Since then I've had several emails telling me I best blog tonight and share the news, so here it is: my mystery, Skeleton in a Dead Space, will be represented by the Publish or Perish Literary Agency (coming from academia, I love the name!). The owner, Roger Williams, and I have had extensive email correspondence the last couple of days, and I will send a signed contract on Monday. I already feel that he's a good friend--he was a sales director at Bantam when my historical novel, Libbie, was published and remembers it well, says he sold thousands of copies. We know some publishing people in common, which helps. Thursday night I filled out the extensive online questionnaire which he asks for instead of a query; Friday morning my email brought an offer of representation. I was taken back by the speed (many of us spend years trying to get an agent and wait months for a reply to a query) but he said he recognized a professional he could work with (be still my heart!) and he loved the 60 pages I attached to the questionnaire. Now is that not a wonderful man? We've even gotten so far as to exchange pictures of our grandchildren. I have a good feeling about this and, as they say on Agent Quest (a subgroup of Sisters in Crime), I'm dancing, eating chocolate and drinking wine.
My horoscope today said I've been through a stressful period (not sure I realized that) and I should unwind this weekend. So I sort of did, but got up fairly early, aware that I wanted to go to the grocery store and cook. Also went to buy pansies for my planter boxes on the front porch but it was too wet and miserable to be out planting them today. Cooking went well up to a certain point--I made a cheese spread of cream cheese, smoky Gouda, smoky cheddar, paprika, drained chopped sun-dried tomatoes in oil, and mayo (and I added a bit of cayenne)--I'll make finger sandwiches of it to take to a neighbor's happy hour tomorrow. Then I made mini-muffins for my Christmas party--a sister from Agent Quest sent me a recipe that calls for one box Devils Food cake mix, 1 can pure pumpkin, and 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips--okay, I added more than that. For muffins, you bake at 350 for 18 minutes; I baked the mini ones for 10 minutes, and the one I ate was delicious! Dense and chocolatey, and you postively cannot tell the pumpkin is in there. It's a Weight Watchers recipe.
But I always get in trouble when I try to do too much at once. While I was baking the muffins, I tried to boil prunes and apricots for prune bread to take to Charles. It was his late wife's special recipe, and he loves it. But I scorched the prunes! The kitchen still smells of them (I have to empty the garbage!). So tomorrow I have to go buy more apricots and prunes (they're not cheap) and start over again with more care. I decided I needed a long nap--and had one!
After last night's caloric splurge on chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes, all smothered in cream gravy, I simply couldn't eat the half I brought home tonight. So I made tuna cakes and roasted some asparagus. Delicious and not too caloric.
Last night Christian and Jordan helped take down the Christmas decorations from the attic, so tonight I unpacked them all, made a list of what didn't get down, and began to think about it. Unpacking them about did me in, so I'll work on that tomorrow too.
Maybe it wasn't such a lazy day, but I feel a certain pressure is off because of Roger Williams and his agency! I know there's lots of work to come, but it's like someone else is driving the bus now, and I'm relieved.

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